Cutting keg with sparkling water

[tj2204]

Ive got a cream ale on tap that I stupidly fermented with less than healthy yeast which resulted in an FG of 1.014, now although this isn't ridiculously high 15 ibu just doesn't do enough to balance it.

I was thinking about cutting the keg with some mineral or soda water to dry the finish up, initial in glass experiments make me think this will make the beer much more drinkable.

Anyone done anything similar? Any tips or advice?

Cheers,

TJ

 

[Bribie G]

I looked right into that recently and the consensus is that it's likely to be well oxygenated as well as the CO2.
Best to use deox water - boil it then cube it as if you are doing a no chill. Pour gently into keg to avoid splashing .

 

[TSMill]

I do it in the glass 50:50 for beer batter (kids prefer it that way) and drink half of what I mix up. Tastes like a stock standard light beer to me....I think it can work, but high likelihood to take it further than you plan to. I'd probably go no more than a litre in a full keg.

 

[manticle]

Couldn't you just add an active starter to ferment down to fg, burping the keg as you go? You'll get a bit of extra yeast in the first few glasses maybe but should get the finish you want.
Otherwise try diluting a glass with boiled, cooled water and seeing if it gets you there.

 

[tj2204]

Couldn't you just add an active starter to ferment down to fg, burping the keg as you go? You'll get a bit of extra yeast in the first few glasses maybe but should get the finish you want.
Otherwise try diluting a glass with boiled, cooled water and seeing if it gets you there.

Was originally going to do this in the fermenter, but initial samples tasted like they'd be good enough. To be honest I don't reckon it's a good enough beer to warrant dicking around with yeast to finish it off, once the tap is on it probably won't last more than a couple of weeks anyway.

I looked right into that recently and the consensus is that it's likely to be well oxygenated as well as the CO2.
Best to use deox water - boil it then cube it as if you are doing a no chill. Pour gently into keg to avoid splashing .

Exactly the sort of info I was after, thanks Bribie, so the fact that the water has been force injected with co2 doesn't mean it is lower in o2?

I do it in the glass 50:50 for beer batter (kids prefer it that way) and drink half of what I mix up. Tastes like a stock standard light beer to me....I think it can work, but high likelihood to take it further than you plan to. I'd probably go no more than a litre in a full keg.

Agree that is is pretty easy to push it too far, when I've been mixing in the glass about 1:20 seems like the sweet spot, any more than that and it goes towards cascade light territory very quickly.

I think I'll keep experimenting with mixing in the glass before deciding which path I'll take.

Cheers.

 

[Bribie G]

Apparently (from LC) they treat the water with ozone first to sterilise it, then the CO2.

 

[tj2204]

Apparently (from LC) they treat the water with ozone first to sterilise it, then the CO2.

Well that's shit.

As I'd only be adding a litre or less boiling the water won't be a hassle, hardest bit will be finding a small enough HDPE vessel to no chill in!

 

[Rocker1986]

If you're only cooling a small amount of water down it doesn't really need to be done like a proper no-chill ... you could boil it in an Erlenmeyer flask and just let it cool in that if you have one, or use a Pyrex jug with gladwrap covering it or something. It's not like it will take hours to cool down to room temp. .

 

[klangers]

Just pour in the water hot.

What's it going to do? Maybe raise the keg temperature by 10 degrees. Not an issue.

Ozonation isn't at all necessary if you're already boiling the water; ozone is more commonly used as a sterilant for bottled water.

 

[tj2204]

If you're only cooling a small amount of water down it doesn't really need to be done like a proper no-chill ... you could boil it in an Erlenmeyer flask and just let it cool in that if you have one, or use a Pyrex jug with gladwrap covering it or something. It's not like it will take hours to cool down to room temp. .

I wonder if the gladwrap would stop the o2 redissolving into the solution though, if not then may as well just throw unboiled tap water in.

Or as @klangers has suggested, pour it in hot, seal and pressurise straight away so the oxygen has no chance of dissolving back in.

Glad I asked here, I knew there would be plenty of things I hadn't considered.

 

[Rocker1986]

I don't imagine you'd get much oxygen dissolving back into the water while it cools but it's probably safer to throw it in hot from that perspective. It will chill down in there pretty quickly anyway and of course the gas will carbonate it just fine.

 

[Bribie G]

Yup straight out of the kitchen kettle.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Yup straight out of the kitchen kettle.

..and filtered thru a kitten

 

[tugger]

If it's only a litre and your going to drink it in 3 weeks just go the soda water.
It will be fine.

 

[Bribie G]

..and filtered thru a kitten

Or a rabbit from the reserve

 

[tj2204]

This turned out pretty well, just threw about 1l of just boiled water into the keg and sealed it up. Certainly cut through some of the sweet finish, still not as dry as I'd like but a hell of a lot better than it was.